Food waste is an enormous problem – The World Food Programme estimate that globally, a third of the food that we produce is wasted. Here in the UK, that’s been estimated to work out to about £19 billion worth of food annually (by waste charity WRAP) and that unintentionally costs UK households hundreds of pounds every year. If you knew you were putting money in the bin every week, you’d start to do something about it, right? Food waste also has a huge impact on the environment, all the way along the supply chain and after its been disposed of: if food waste were a country it would have the third largest carbon footprint, behind the USA and China, and be a worse offender than commercial aviation.
This week is Food Waste Action Week (March 1st – 7th), a campaign led by WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste project whose slogan is “wasting food feeds climate change”. Their aim is to raise awareness and help people to tackle the issue in their own homes. In our opinion, every week should be food waste action week, and whilst we can’t do much as individuals about the wastage that occurs between the field and our fridges, there are a few small adjustments that we can all make that will not only save us money but also do some good for the environment.
Three Ways To Reduce Food Waste At Home
- Planning your meals and buying only what you need is a really easy way to reduce the amount of food that ends up in your bin, and also allows you to check use-by dates as you shop so that you don’t waste any food because it’s gone off. We’ve shared three one-week menu/meal plans over the last year – see our latest here).
- Use up your leftovers – we throw away a lot of perfectly good food, such as stalks, leaves, the end slices of bread, and so on, that can be used in some amazing recipes (see below). The same goes for leftovers from meals, such as roast potatoes, that can be used in other dishes.
- Check the temperature of your fridge. It should be below 5 degrees Celsius, but a surprising number of fridges aren’t kept that cold. You can add around three days onto the life of perishables such as milk and soft fruits if you keep your fridge at the right temperature (and don’t keep the door open for a long time when putting things in and out of it).
The Usual Suspects, And Waste-Not Recipes
The three things that UK households throw away the most of are potatoes, bread and apples. Just under half of all potatoes thrown away in the UK are untouched and edible – it’s criminal! Over the last couple of years we’ve shared a fair few recipes that make the most of leftovers and offcuts, so next time you’re about to drop something into the bin check back to here and click through to find out how to give it a second, delicious, lease of life:
Leftover Potatoes? You could make Dosa with coconut sambal, or leftover root veg gnocchi.
Bread crusts. Save these and buzz them up in the blender with garlic, herbs and olive oil then toast to make pangrattato (poor man’s parmesan) that you can put on just about anything.
A remoulade is a great way to use up apples and the stalk of a broccoli if you cooked the florets for another meal – try this recipe that serves it with scallops.